Friday, 3 August 2012

Olympic Fashion Games: The Opening Ceremony Clothes & The Winner

London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony

I hear the Olympic Opening Ceremony divides people in those who just
thought it was plain weird and to those who thought it was brilliant. I
can see it both ways, but we had so much fun watching the Opening
Ceremony, that I’d probably lean on calling it Britishly brilliant – I
especially liked the James Bond and Her Majesty parachuting from a
helicopter (which I missed first but luckily saw later!), Mary Poppins,
kids jumping in beds, Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean, the 80s and 90s dance
moves and David Beckham on a boat. And then judging all of the Olympic
fashions as each country’s team walked on the stadium. Good times.
There has been a lot of hype about the Olympics Fashion this year,
several countries had amazing designer names such as Giorgio Armani for
Italy, Ralph Lauren for USA, Stella McCartney for UK designing the team
uniforms. Surprisingly none of these big names were not a big hit at the
Opening Ceremony. Overall I think many outfits would be great for
either Halloween or for flight attendants. Italy’s Opening Ceremony
outfit was great design, UK’s outfit was white and gold and NOT designed
by Stella, and more about Ralph Lauren in a bit. The real winners are
below.

The Winners: The Top 3 Opening Ceremony Fashion

Photo: REUTERS/Jorge Silva / FOXTHE BEST NATIONAL COLORS & OLYMPIC SPIRIT: I
love how Brazil incorporated their flag colors in the team outfits, and
the colorful yellow and green miniskirts just work! Preppy with the
blazer, Harry Potter go rugby with the scarf, and the shoes say “let’s
go and have great Summer Games” with their neon shoe laces. Sporty, fun
and yet dressy enough for Opening Ceremony.
Photo:Paul Gilham/GettyTHE BEST DRESSED TEAM: My favorite team was the Team
Netherlands – they wore the navy blue blazer & white pants combo
the best – the blazer his well fitting, has great white detail, the
belts on women’s outfit are very trendy, and the women’s blue dress
isn’t too bad either. The blue ballet shoes are brilliant, dressy but
not stuffy, like everything in their uniforms. Sporty, preppy, colorful,
ready to take over the world. Classic idea done very trendy, and
incorporated their national color orange (that happens to be the color
of the year!) extremely well. I also like that there were different
options to choose from for each athlete and how the entire team looks
uniform – even when the individual outfits are not the same. The
Netherlands clothes were designed by Suitsupply. THE BEST DRESS/ONE PIECE OF CLOTHING: Team
Paraguay’s dresses bring sexy back to the celebrations of the nations.
The red dress is absolutely stunning, as is Leryn Franco, the team’s
javelin thrower wearing it. While the men’s blue blazers are
questionable, and the they could have left the straw hats home too, the
dress was absolutely one of the most fashionable pieces of clothing in
the Opening Ceremony showing that it’s possible to wear something sexy
and flattering and still make it look fresh for a sporting event.

Team USA and the Ralph Lauren Criticism

Let’s just say, I love Ralph Lauren, and even when RL got slack for having large polo pony in the Beijing Olympics,
I was all over it, and loved the outfits. I completely agree with the
un-patriotism of manufacturing the Olympic clothing in China, but I also
think that we have to put our money where our mouth is – when is the
last time you even checked where the garment you bought was made in?
I think when we as consumers make purchasing decisions based on
ethical questions like this, we can have our voices heard much better,
but if we only criticize once the decisions have already been made, it’s
too late. If you truly care about what kind of image RL is giving to
the Team USA and our country by showing up in the Olympics in China-made
clothes, please start making better purchasing decisions and start
supporting clothing made in teh USA.
But let’s get back to fashion and simple look at the clothing.. Did
you like the look of the team USA’s Opening Ceremony outfit? The blue
blazer is always an Olympic classic, but this time it lacked both
sophistication like Italians, and making the statement like the
Netherlands, and it also didn’t stand out in the sea of red, white and
blue outfits this year. The hat looked very Roots/Canadian to me, and
while the women’s white skirts were very nicely cut, I didn’t care for
the men’s pants as much. The shoes – not a big fan, especially with the
socks. Over all a cute look, and it doesn’t look BAD, but it doesn’t
look as good as in the last Olympics, nor meet the expectations I had.

Blue Blazer & White Pants Stroke Again

Wearing the blue blazer for the Opening Ceremony is a classic move,
white pants another one. Perhaps because of the host country UK’s red,
white and blue Union Jack several countries had chosen the same colors
for their own team outfits this year to respect the host nation. I
actually liked the ones that added a little national spin to it the best
and who were not afraid of adding color to the classic look.
Photos: Stu Foster/Getty Images, The Associated Press Photo By Mark Humphrey/The Associated Press
French team took minimalism to the top, and the simple blue and white
just works. Maybe lacking some Olympic spirit, but not style. I don’t
care for the men’s white shoes – but women’s red ones looked fantastic.
Photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images Europe
Russia and Austria were among the teams dressed in red, white and
blue, and I don’t know if it’s possible to pick a real winner from these
two. These two teams sum up what several teams looks liked. Blah.

The Scandinavians

Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer – via FOX
Where the heck was the famous Scandinavian design?
The Finnish team wore printed jackets and white bottoms, designed by
Martti Kellokumpu for Halti. While the print represents Finland well and
I like the idea, too bad you can’t really see what the print looks like
on TV or in the stadium. The blah tennis shoes and skirt make the
entire outfit very unmemorable.
I didn’t know Swedes actually wore their flag colors, I thought the
tacky Swedish tees I see in the shops were only for the tourists. They
are absolutely making an impression, I’m just not sure if it’s a
positive one. It is said though that all PR is good PR and I can tell
Sweden is getting to many of the fashion posts written all over the
world right now.
I can see both outfits worn at Scandinavian homes while watching the
Olympics games, but despite the sneakers I don’t know if they would
qualify to even run to the store quickly to buy more beer. At least
Finland tried, but I might be biased. Do we have a winner here either?
Enjoy the Summer Games – and leave in the comments which part of the Opening Ceremony was your favorite!